Here I am, on the edge of a Red Sox sweep of the World Series, and I'm stuck in Japan unable to watch. I have to rely on crappy internet pictures. You know, I told myself that this would happen ... and it did!
And now, I can't watch the game because instead of showing interesting things, Japanese TV has to air some bullshit about food. Don't you people have anything better to watch? Egad. Even when the Red Sox aren't the issue, Japanese TV is the worst crap I have ever seen. American TV is bad, I will not lie. I hate TV. But Japanese TV is by far the most mind-numbing bullshit I have ever watched for longer than 2 seconds.
Huff.
... do I have to travel 2 hours (each way) to Tokyo to get pumpkins for an English Club activity.
... can you buy a $100 pumpkin.
... are there so many trains I can't find the right one home.
... am I unable to get a seat all the way home whilst carrying aforementioned pumpkins.
... is the epic Red Sox/Yankees game pre-empted by crappy midafternoon TV drama shows.
... do national live US blackout rules also apply. Try watching baseball online. You can't.
... does anyone notice "President" Bush's obvious listening device during televised debates.
I ran out of things to say ...
It figures the year I'm in Japan the Red Sox would make it to the World Series. 18 years (since 1986) we have all waited for this. And now, finally, after a record-breaking comeback over the evil empire New York Yankees, the Sox are going to the World Series!
Unfortunately, I had to watch the end of the game on the internet because Japanese TV sucks and they had to pre-empt the game with some really shitty drama. But hey...they'd better not do that for the Series.
Anyway ... yay!
As I am caught inside huddled underneath my kotatsu with the kitten passed out between my legs, I find myself pondering the mysteries of why in the world this place was named the Land of the Rising Sun.
Rising Sun indeed. I think I've seen the sun for collectively maybe 24 hours total since getting here three months ago. We're on Typhoon 23 currently (the 10th so far to hit Japan and the biggest yet in years) and I can't imagine there's going to be any stop to the relentless march of crappy weather. Everyone tells me the weather is great in October but honestly I don't really see where they get that from. They are Japanese of course and they do live here, so I suppose that makes them authorities of some sort, right? Regardless, it's raining like hell outside.
Let me inform you of the wonders of the kotatsu. It is a low "Japanese-style" table with a blanket underneath it and another blanket draped across the top. On the underside of the table is a small heating element. Imagine, you have a little heater creating beautiful heat that's trapped by the blankets. Imagine the wind is howling outside and there's no such thing as insulation in Southern Japan. Imagine my kitty has found no better place to sleep than under said kotatsu. She is absolutely passed out. I find no problem with this, considering the rest of the evening she was pestering me every five seconds by climbing up my leg.
If you live in Japan and you don't have a kotatsu, you are insane. This is probably the coolest invention to come out of this country since ... uh ... Hello Kitty vibrators. I kid. But there really is such thing as a Hello Kitty vibrator. The coolest thing aside from kotatsu, I think, is the technically-advanced cellphones they have here. These are the times when I think "why the heck hasn't this stuff made it to the United States?"
Then I realize Japan is in a class all by itself.
It's no wonder, looking outside at the sheets of rain, these people came out a little ... "different."
All weekend in Kyoto (and long before that, too) I was whining about wanting a kitten. Said whining was spurred by seeing a man selling kittens at the river. I have been without a furry companion for a while. I have long wanted a puppy since my mom got a little princess Maltese, and in Japan especially I thought having a companion of some sort would be nice. But I didn't thing getting one would be a good idea seeing as I live in an apartment.
I was at the train station after Kyoto, and I noticed something in the street. Why had no one else noticed that there was a tiny, helpless kitten in the middle of the street? I scooped her up, knowing full well that she would get hit by a car if I didn't. Immediately I decided to name her (actually we don't know what (s)he is) Piki, or Piki-chan if you want to get Japanese about it. Maybe I'll come up with some kanji for her name. Without further ado, the first pictures! I'm like a new father, showing off new pictures of my baby to everyone ...
Yeah there are some bad pictures of me in here, but I am not the subject of these photos!
Ain't she just precious? >(^-^)<
Last weekend I went to Kyoto, and now I have all the pictures compiled, named, retouched, and so on. So here they are. Sorry for the lack of writing, I just have a kitten (more on that later) climbing all over me!
Last night, for perhaps the fifth or sixth time, I wandered into Mami-Mart (the local grocery store) cashless with the intent of buying groceries for dinner. Also for the fifth or sixth time, I failed to recall that Mami-Mart's ATM was recently stolen (ala the movie "Barbershop") and they don't take credit. I returned home with no food.
In fact, I can probably count the number of stores I've been to on two hands that actually take credit. And that pisses me off. See normally, were I back home and realized I had no cash, I could continue happily filling my grocery basket to the brim and pay with credit. Here, already halfway through filling the basket, I'm forced to abandon the venture and put everything back. I can surely say that in a grocery store where I already have no clue where anything is, it's pretty hard to figure out where stuff should be returned to.
For such a technologically advanced (arguably the most advanced in terms of gadgetry) society, Japan sure is behind the times. It's not uncommon for someone to be carrying around $500 in their wallet. To me that seems absolutely assanine. Sure, there's less crime so therefore you're less likely to be mugged or something, but what if you lose your wallet? Well there goes your $500. So okay, I decided I guess I'm going to have to get hundreds of dollars in cash every time I go to the ATM. Easier said than done.
You see, so everyone needs cash all the time. You'd think that would lead to a relatively advanced ATM network. Of course not! It's like no one has heard of the concept of a 24-hour ATM. Every ATM I have ever been to here has a closing time ... usually at about 7PM or something. So if I go out after that without any cash, I'm pretty much screwed until I can hopefully find a convenience store with a working ATM that actually accepts my bank card (which is another problem, there's no universal system). I can't tell you how much of a mooch I feel like sometimes because I haven't yet adjusted to this stupid cash-based nonsense and I have to borrow money. I hate it. On top of that, if you are getting money outside of the bank's hours (9-5, conveniently when I and everyone else work) you get charged by your own bank to take out money at the bank's own ATM.
I hear we can use our cellphones now as a credit card thanks to RFID technology. How can that possibly make things any more useful, I ask, when most stores don't even take credit cards? How the hell are you going to convince these stores, who are too stingy to buy a credit card machine, to go out and buy some sort of newfangled RFID reading machine? Good luck.
So while the rest of the world is speeding along in payment technology, Japan is still moving at the rate of cash, roughly at the same level where the U.S. was in the 80's. I guess that's the real reason why I never have any food. Because I never have stupid cash. Yeah it's my problem but dammit, if you're gonna kick the crap out of every other country in terms of cool technology, why don't you at least equal them in how to pay for that technology! Nothing is more ludicrous (or like a drug dealer), in my opinion, than paying for something like a computer in cash. But I have seen it done.
I have been able to use my credit card a grand total of maybe 5 times in the two months I have been here. In the span of two months at home, I would've probably used my two cards 15 or 20 times each. What convenience! Oh to swipe the plastic with nary a thought ... what joy!
Travelers beware: prepare for your card to become a useless piece of plastic. Maybe I could do something useful with this ... like melt it and get wacky on the fumes.